Book Club Gone Wild

I know I've mentioned this before, but I am in a book club.  It is a pretty rad book club with some pretty rad chicks.  We are close to celebrating our 6 year anniversary, so over the years we've laughed, we've cried, we've loved, we've lost, we've partied and along the way we've read some amazing books.  Good times.

Since my friend and fellow book clubber, Sharmee, is getting married, we decided we'd send her off with a bang with a book club bachelorette bash.  For our book this month, we read erotica and danced the night away to Madonna at a club that was having Madonna-rama night. Madonna wasn't there, of course, but we still rocked out with our books out.  Who says book clubs aren't cool??   We're bringin' reading back!

We all gifted Sharmee with a little something that night. Since I am working on about 6 different projects right now, I didn't have time to actually buy her anything, so here is what I made for her.

I drew out the shape of a bra, cut it out and cut up a doily to use as lace.  I added a bow and some bling (you can't really see it in this pic) to the front of the bra for the cuteness factor.  Then, I wanted the bra to look like it was hanging on a clothesline outside, so I added some twine and mini clothespins.  The blue cardstock looked too bare, so I added some swirls to give the effect of clouds.  It still looked too bare, so at my Seester's suggestion, I added some bling to the swirls.  Love it.  And I think Sharmee liked it.  :)

I only took the one pic of the card with my iPhone, so I will update this post with a close up pic/better pics when I get the chance.  I asked for the card back from Sharmee so I could take pics of it at home, but she kindly told me I could take pics of it at her house.  :)

Hippo Bithday, Shiraz!

I am so excited to show you this next card.  I actually thought of it while I was making this card back in February knowing full well who I would make it for.  I sketched it out on some scrap paper and basically waited until this week to make it.  It was hard to wait that long, but I think that makes me all the more excited to give this to the little boy it was meant for. My BIL scoffed when he found out there were no moving parts (LOL) so I hope this one doesn't disappoint.  :)

Shiraz turns 2 this month.  He's a pretty amazing little guy, a lot of which stems from the fact that he has pretty amazing parents. Shiraz's father is sort of the older brother Mr. Bean never had.  Mr. B looks up to him and respects him and loves working for him.  Shiraz's mother is a fascinating woman.  She is from Tanzania, fluent in like 5 different languages (I don't think I'm exaggerating here), operates Journey to Africa, a company that specializes in customized safaris to Tanzania and Kenya (please check it out even if you aren't considering a trip to Africa...it'll make you want to go, like now), is an awesome mother, baker and, of course, crafter.  She is the one who inspired me to actually sit and learn to sew and is a huge supporter of my addiction to paper.  So, needless to say, I always try to make something special for Shiraz.  Because I know whatever it is I create, it will be appreciated.  And that is like icing on the cake for a craft addict, isn't it? 

The inspiration for this card was a combination of the Elephant Baby card and Jenn Ski's alphabet cards.  While I was making that card, I thought how cute it would be to have a diorama-esque card that showed animals and numbers instead of letters.

I went with hippos because, well, there aren't many animals that are cuter than hippos.  Since Shiraz was turning two, I wanted two hippos sitting in a body of water - much like the grassy waters you see on any nature show. Everything was sketched out and hand cut except, of course, the Thickers and mini alpha stickers.  I am really upset with myself because I actually made little party hats for the hippos and then forgot to glue them down. UGH. 

For the water, I used two different tones of blue cardstock.  One textured.  One flat. I tried to keep it from looking like an ocean. The jury is still out on whether I was successful or not, but I think we can all use our imaginations here.  

For the grass, I used two different papers.  One was a light green patterned paper.  The other was Bazzill Bling, but I used both the bling side and the reverse (matte) side of it.  Each blade was hand cut and glued down in a pretty ugly manner to a piece of cardstock, which is one reason why I had to change my original plan to have grass along the bottom of the card. 

For the sun, I used a circle punch on some scraps and just clipped it to look like rays.  I added a button for more color from a huge jar that my grandmother gave me of her leftover buttons.  Gotta love Grandma.  The clouds were freehanded on the reverse side of the cardstock and hand cut. 

I didn't originally include the pennant banner, but what says 'birthday' better than a banner?  So, I used some twine to make it look like the hippos where holding up a banner just for Shiraz.  I literally tied the twine in a bow around the hippos' tail and prayed it didn't rip the tails off.  That's what you call livin' la crafty vida loca, my friends.  


I used Thickers for Shiraz's name and placed it on a little name plate I created with blue cardstock.  OK, I'm lying.  I didn't do that on purpose, but don't you love when stuff works out like that??  :)  What I did do on purpose was place the letters in a way that made it look like they were each floating in water.   And, finally, I think it goes without saying that I used a ton of pop up dots to piece this card together. 

If you are still reading, that was about it!  I think with every card you make, you think of all these things you could have done differently or other things you could have added - and even things you forgot to add - but one aspect of card making that I enjoy is the problem solving part of it.  You start out with a one dimensional sketch and figure out how to make it two dimensional.  I love how it came out and I know Shiraz and his parents will love it, too.

Happy Birthday, Shiraz!  It's been such a pleasure to watch you grow up.  I hope you love your card, because I think I already know what I want to do next year. :) 

A Gleek-y Birthday

I think it is pretty obvious what this card was inspired by. I am a HUGE Glee fan and so is my friend, Blanca. She's kind of my clone in the sense that we have the same sense of humor and the same interests...fashion...books....food....trashy TV...you name it. I met her in college at a time when I really needed my own set of friends. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship, and I found myself in that position where I realized all of my friends were actually his friends. So, she took me under her wing and showed me how much more fun college can be without a boyfriend. She's been my partner in crime ever since.

Blanca is only 9 months older than I am but was born the year before I was. So basically we are only the same age for 3 months out of the year. And, since I like to be a pain, I like to give her a hard time about that. And it never gets old. Well, she does. Not the joke. Ha ha ha. [I hope she's reading.]

Anyway, this card is for her birthday. I solicited the help of my friend, who is pretty awesome to allow me to use her and abuse her crafty awesomeness, so let's just give a shout out to Anita. She was my hand model as well as my Cricut extraordinaire.



Pretty simple. Anita used Sure Cuts A Lot on her Cricut to cut out the letters in the font I wanted. We took a picture of her hand and had it printed at the Walgreens photo center. I cut out the hand in the picture and used pop up dots on the letters and the picture. The black letters are Basic Grey's Micro Stickers (my fave). I didn't have them in black, so I used a Sharpie.

Here is the inside.


The inside has a quote from the show: "Wait, so old people can join Glee Club now?" - Finn Hudson
All the paper is Bazzill, of course. Love it.
It's no coincidence that I posted this today. Glee premieres tonight!! If you don't already watch it...well, you deserve a slushie. ;)

A Birthday Card Story.

I am really excited to post this next card. Lately, I've been saying this with every card, but this is seriously one of my all-time favorite cards. But please bare with me. I am going to selfishly walk you thru every detail of how this card was created so that I can relive the memories.

I worked on this card with a friend of mine. Working with my friend is always a pleasure, but typically we have an agenda. This time, it was fun to sort of play around with materials and toss around ideas with her. She's amazingly creative and talented. She inspires me everyday to live green and think outside of the box when crafting. She's definitely a crafter in a whole other league from me, since I stick to paper and fabric, so she brings a plethora of crafty information with her.

A few weeks ago, my friend and I set out on a mission to create a card for our fellow crafty friend. We are two of her biggest fans. Basically, it had to be fantastic. It needed to be fabulous. And it definitely required some amount of 'clever'. And I, of course, thought it had to have some sort of pennant banner. And at least one rosette. So, we started a think tank and dove head first into a brainstorming session where I presented my friend with ideas like, "Why don't we just encrust it with huge diamonds!!" And my friend would respond, "Um. No." Or, "Why don't we make a remote control card that will zoom in with a cake on top?!" And my friend would respond, "Um. No." So, the dreamer and the realist went thru my craft room and decided to use what I had. Unfortunately, there were no huge diamonds available for encrusting.

We stumbled upon this picture and used it as our inspiration. A desert table by Amy Atlas.


It fit all the criteria. It was fantastic. In fact, it was fabulous. It had some crepe paper rosettes that were to making me scream, "Come home to Momma!!!" And, layering those rosettes?! How clever! The only thing missing as far as I was concerned was a pennant banner. Totally doing this for a party, BTW. Preferably a party for me.

The next day I started sketching out ideas at work (instead of working, yes). At the suggestion of my friend, I included the sketches for you. Kind of shows you my thought process.
Then, it was back to my craft room. None of the patterned paper I had really satisfied us, so my friend came up with the very clever idea of using magazines or catalogs to make the rosettes. I recycle my catalogs pretty quickly, but luckily that morning I forgot to toss the latest Pottery Barn catalogs in my recycle bin before the city came to pick it up. It was fate.

I'll admit, once we started cutting them up, I was a bit skeptical of the catalogs. It didn't seem like it was colorful enough. But, I loved the idea that we were using catalogs. Despite my concerns, that night my friend confidently churned out every single one of those rosettes as well as the pennants AND still wanted to be my friend the next day.

I figured the enforcers of the crafting labor laws would not condone three nights of torture, so the next day, I decided I'd better figure out the rest of the card on my own. So after playing around with a few ideas, I ended up stitching each pennant into a banner by hand-feeding it into my sewing machine. It sounds extremely labor intensive, I know. I'll just keep typing and making you think that. But, in case any crafting labor law enforcers are reading this, it actually didn't take that long once I got the swing of it.

Besides gluing it all together and making the actual card portion, that was about all there was to it. Here is the final product. Enjoy.






And just because I couldn't get enough of the pennants, I decided to use it on the wrapping.



I wish the pictures did it justice. I tried taking pics of it from different angles so you could see how fantastic and fabulous and clever it is. This card will be hard to give away, but I know the person it's going to will love it and appreciate it as much as I ever could.

Great Minds. Good Times.

I got to spend some quality crafting time with a pretty awesome friend this weekend. She's got a big heart and a big family, so basically she's got a lot of opportunties to make things for the people she loves. I am usually in my craft room by myself listening to my iPod while Mr. Bean works, so it was fun to have some company. Especially with someone that really loves to create. Anything.

When she approached me a few weeks ago about helping her make a couple of birthday cards for her nieces, I wasn't sure what to do at first. I only know one little girl so it took me a bit out of my element. But, I am really excited about our results. These are probably my two favorite cards yet.

I was inspired by this card. I have been wanting to make a circle card for a while now, ever since Kristina did it a year or two ago. My friend is like my crafting soul mate, so she said she was thinking of a circle shaped card, too. Great minds think alike, eh? Eh??



This first card was really exciting to put together. I've had that paper for a couple of years now and really wanted to just keep it in my "collection". But, when we saw it, it oozed little girls and cupcakes, so it was a no brainer to use it. The glitter paper is from Target. The chipboard is Thickers. The faux stitch is the Signo white gel pen I blogged about earlier.



This second card makes me smile. This little girl will be exactly 3.5 when her sister turns 5. When my friend told me she would be 3.5, a half eaten cupcake came to mind. But, what goes better with cake than ice cream? This card came out exactly how I pictured in my head. Love when that happens. My only regret is that I didn't have the perfect patterned paper for the scoops of ice cream, but I love the stipes and polka dotted ribbon against the solid colored paper, too. So, maybe next time.

The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. I cut it down because the thickness I had wasn't the right scale. I am not sure where the paper was from. I believe all of it was given to me a while ago by my friend. So glad we could use it. The orange heart is from scraps of Bazzill I had left over from my wedding. The chipboard is Thickers. Is it wrong to say I am in love with this card? Well, both of them really. I would say we make a good team, wouldn't you? :)

Well, I hope everyone got a chance to catch up on some sleep this weekend and make up for the hour we lost. I won't go into detail what Mr. Bean and I did this weekend, but it was enfuriating, exhausting, adventurous, a ton of fun and it made me proud of my city - all in two days.

Baby Love.

So, I've got the baby bug, but it's not what you think. Lately it seems like it's been baby explosion here since I know so many people having babies. Boys, at that. So, I dove into my craft room and started working on my resolution to get started early on all the projects I set out to make and finish them on time. And I must say, it feels good.

My first project was a card for Mr. Bean's co-worker. Since I actually don't have too many embellishments in my craft room, I had a lot of fun cutting out all the shapes from scraps and getting creative with my patterned paper to give the card some texture. I got my inspiration from this amazing card. I actually saw it a long time ago and remembered it's awesomeness. Here is my take on it.


I had the same stamp and, surprisingly, an ink pad that resembled the color of a sky. (I actually purchased the stamp because I remembered this card and dreamt of making a Mario Bros themed card with it one day. Isn't that stamp just begging for some mushrooms to be put in front of it??) The rest is all patterned paper that I sketched, cut out, including the little heart, and then layered with pop up adhesive to give it some dimension. You can't see that too well in the picture, but each piece is popping up somehow.

The elephant's body is actually made from scraps from my very first project that ever took me inside a scrapbook store. The faux stitch is with my favorite thing in the world next to mascara, the Signo Uni-ball Impact Pen in white. And like mascara, it has become a necessity of mine. The twine that is "holding up" the heart balloon is a purchase I made in Iowa while visiting my sister. I got a yard of it, but now wish I got 30. Once I used it, I was addicted. It's the perfect thickness for cards. This was probably the most fun I've ever had making a card because I actually had everything I needed/wanted and it came out exactly like I pictured in my head. I got to hear from Shawn's co-worker's wife, and she apparently loved it. So, my work there was done.

My next project was for the newest member of a close group of friends. There are 6 of us total who have known each other for about 22 years now. Over the last 2 years, our group has expanded with the addition of some bundles of joy. The newest addition should be on his way as I type and I can't wait to meet him. In anticipation, I made some burp cloths in some mod baby boy colors and patterns. I had to throw in some Amy Butler, of course, but that was more for mommy and not baby. :)


It is basically cloth diapers with a sewn embellishment down the middle just to make it look nicer than a cloth diaper on mom's shoulder. On Saturday, I gave some away to another friend having another baby boy and it was received enthusiastically because, all the mothers there said, cloth diapers are the best burp cloths since they are so absorbent. So, I am looking forward to wrapping these up really cute and giving them away tomorrow!!
Enough for now! Off to bed!! We had some snow tonight, so I am praying the roads are slick long enough to sleep in a bit in the morning. It'd be only for my safety.

New Years Cards are the new Christmas Cards

This year I made a vow to myself that I would send out Christmas cards, but well, that didn't happen. I even have some fabulous ones that I got 60% off at a store closing. *sniff* (I loved that store.) I underestimated - as usual - all the things I wanted to do/needed to do/still have to do during the holiday season. My solution? New Year's cards!!! Why didn't I think of this before?!?! Why waste your precious Christmas shopping time writing out Christmas cards? Send a New Years card instead! So, instead of doing the pile of work sitting on my desk, one day my sister and I sat and designed our New Year's cards that we will be sending out. I really like mine, although I wish that one of the fonts had printed bigger, but who is going to notice but me??

Anyway, I decided to brush up on my brush strokes (he he he.....get it? Brush up....HA! I kill me!!) when addressing my envelopes. My calligraphy instructors always encouraged us to practice our calligraphy anytime we are sending out anything. In fact, my copperplate calligraphy instructor would even write her checks out in copperplate. But, I have not whipped out anything in probably 3 years. So, here are the final results before I added the addresses.

I am really rusty so I apologize in advance for those that will be receiving cards that don't met my usual standards of excellence, but I didn't order extra envelopes so you'll just have to deal. These three were my favorite, and frankly, the only ones that received the stamp of approval from moi.

I will be leaving next weekend for India so this will probably be my last post of 2009. Happy New Year!! All the best in 2010! I hope your New Year resolutions include lots of crafting!!